NHS England chief faces his biggest challenge yet

Simon Stevens’s long honeymoon is finally coming to an end. NHS England’s chief executive has in his two and a half years in the job skilfully kept his own side, “the NHS family”, believing in both his vision for the future as the only answer to what some see as the service’s potentially existential problems and, crucially, his ability to deliver. At the same time he has enjoyed strong relationships in government, including in No 10 and the Treasury. Persuading a dubious George Osborne, the former chancellor, last autumn to frontload £3.8bn into this year’s NHS budget of the extra £8bn... read more

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